


Rumors

by Pappillon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fantasy, Human AU, Requested from Tumblr, Starring Pamina and Frau Weiss as Pink and White Diamond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 02:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11499996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pappillon/pseuds/Pappillon
Summary: Strange phenomena keep happening in Pamina's village, and the mystery comes to a head when an odd woman appears in her garden.





	Rumors

Rumors circulated around the town like the frequent morning fog. They covered the cobblestone streets and drifted past the store fronts. Folks gathered in small groups to whisper to one another, far away from the forest that bordered the town. Perhaps speaking the word too loudly would summon one. No one risked it.

Pamina watched them congregate outside her bakery. Everyone morning, reports of missing cattle wafted through her door. Once, more drastically, the blacksmith’s horse, Fritz, had disappeared into the night. The townspeople gathered and searched, but found nothing more than blood stains in the woods, but never any skeletons; never anything more.

Pamina had offered to come and look, but most everyone insisted she stay and tend to her bakery. “You’re young,” they said. “What if that thing finds you and drags you away?” So, she remained and baked her bread, sugared her rolls, and snapped her gingers until the search proved fruitless anyway. Somehow, the fog grew denser by the day.

“Will you be able to walk home all by yourself, Pamina?” One of her customers asked her.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thank you anyway.” She handed them the freshly stuffed bag of bread and pastries along with their change.

“Let me know if you change your mind. The nights keep getting darker and darker…”

That evening, Pamina closed up her shop and began her journey home. She lived just at the edge of town, inside the meadow where the woods began and the path ended. Sometimes visitors would come to check on her, saying that they had heard strange noises and bumps in the night, but without any livestock, Pamina had no incidents to report.

Once her old shoes reached the end of the cobblestones, night had almost fallen. The remaining light faded fast behind the faraway mountains and grew obscured anyway. She marched along the flowers and grass that lead to her cottage, while the stars appeared from beneath their blanket of deepening purple.

Somewhere, a twig snapped.

And for a second, Pamina stopped.

The falling night offered her silence, so she brushed away some of the flour from her pink skirts and continued walking.

A few seconds passed and not too far in the distance, a branch broke, accompanied by a growl. Pamina looked well ahead into the forest, but found nothing but the full, rising moon capsize over the tops of the trees. She clutched her purse tighter and quickened her pace by a small percentage. Her cottage lied in sight.

As Pamina approached her front walkway, and by extension, the forest, she could practically see the outlines of the trees and the darkness that stood between them. Somewhere in that mess of branches, something snapped again, and despite being close to her front door, Pamina stopped and clutched the buckles of her purse. She nearly felt her lungs inflate as the air grew colder and the night fell closer to the tops of the trees.

Just for a moment, she squinted and stared into the thick gathering of trunks, and there appeared a pair of enormous silver eyes. They glowed the way coins would at the bottom of a wishing well, and upon catching them, the young lady gasped. They had found her and looked on, not moving forward or backward but bobbed up and down with the creature’s breath.

Finally, Pamina gripped the handle of her bag and ran to the front door, locking it behind her and exhaling her lungs flat.

“You have to be kidding me!”

She stomped to the back of her house, past the salon and into the kitchen, to look out the window. Though she found the place between the trees she had only just seen, the eyes had disappeared and left only darkness. Still, even from inside her modest cottage, she heard the sound of forest shredding and trees falling.

Pamina sighed. A few of her fingers combed through her wild hair as she moved from the window and made her dinner, which eventually led to her going to bed.

Her room on most nights was incredibly dark, but on that evening, the moonlight bled through the windows and onto the floor. On a few occasions, it cut through her sleep by shining into her eyelids, so she had to draw the blankets over her forehead until a tuft of her auburn hair remained the only part of her exposed. Despite the covers, the sounds still occurred outside—some of which seemed to come from just the other side of her wall. Pamina heard loud panting, low growling, and once even a howling that sounded further away.

On a few occasions, she had even gone outside the next morning and found a hole beneath her fence. Some creature had taken its paws and dug under it, until the planks had begun to lean. The flowers and mint she grew at the time remained untouched and Pamina shook her head at the vandalism.

On another occasion, she had found various patches of torn-out silver fur around her garden. They had been scattered about, and were coarse to the touch, but beautiful. Holding a few strands, Pamina turned them between her fingers to make them pick up the light, and they shimmered back, like the eyes in the woods.    

The next morning, she woke to an unnatural silence. The regular birds didn’t chirp, nor did the breeze blow. The morning brightness went unencumbered by any clouds or obstructions, and Pamina walked through it as if she’d ended up in a bizarre afterlife. Even her footsteps upon the wooden floor seemed far too loud, so she tried to dress quietly, nearly tiptoeing around the house until she put on her pink dress from yesterday and glanced again from the kitchen window.

There, in the grass of her garden, slept a woman. Her gown held about ten different, long, terrible scratches through it. Reduced to shreds, it revealed her breasts and legs, and underneath that ripped napkin of a garment were several streaks of blood. Most notably, the stain around her mouth afflicted her lips and chin as though she had dipped them in a bowl of red paint and allowed it to dry.

Pamina gasped and went outside, stamping her feet a little as she approached the near corpse.

“Frau Weiss!” She said, “I knew it was you! Why are you all torn up like this?”

The body gurgled and clenched her eyelids but didn’t wake, so Pamina smoothed her hands over her skirts and took her beneath the arms. She dragged Frau Weiss though the grass and the flowers, past the singular step off the back door, past the kitchen and the flour-laden floor, and onto the rug in the center of the living room. From her little sofa, she removed a pillow, fluffed it, and placed it beneath the woman’s head of impressive hair. It flowed on like a river made of silver, and if she stood up, would stop along the center of her back.

Before going to the kitchen to fetch a rag, Pamina stopped to regard the little crow’s feet around her long-lashed eyes and the pretty curve of her rosy cheeks. She traced the unconscious woman’s delicate jaw with her middle and index finger, trailing through the blood, and then finally stood back up to fetch the cloth.

“One of these days, you’re going to get into a lot of trouble, Frau Weiss.”

From the kitchen, Pamina could only see her body up to the neck. Her shapely breasts rose and fell with her breathing while her long fingers twitched. She didn’t speak, but had just begun to hum when Pamina came back and opened the buttons of her torn gown.

“It’s a shame. I really liked this outfit.” Her nails gripped the bloody lace and peeled it from the wounds. Frau Weiss moaned, but had yet to open her eyes. “You owe me for this, you know. It’s impolite to pass out in someone else’s garden.” When she touched one of the cuts with the cool cloth, the woman finally shouted, writhing in the sensation.       

“Good morning, Frau Weiss. It looks like you had an eventful evening.”

“ Fräulein —” She gasped. Her quivering hand sat atop Pamina’s as her expression twisted in pain.

“Did you forget it was going to be a full moon? I thought about sending you a note, but that might have been suspicious. Maybe I could have told you about my day and mentioned near the bottom, ‘Can you believe another month has passed?’” Pamina exaggeratedly winked. “Next time I think that’s what I’ll do.”

Frau Weiss laughed a little and then writhed again from giggling with wounds. Her teeth clenched and she exhaled.

“I’m sorry.” Pamina cleaned around her face. “I’ll try not to make you smile too much. Not until you’re bandaged up, at least.”

“No, I’m sorry. I’ve troubled you so many times.” Frau Weiss glanced away as Pamina cleaned her lips. They were awfully close.

“I should have just let you chain me up. I can’t remember anything that happened, but I’m certain I had a fight.” A few moments passed and Pamina cleaned most of the blood from her face, though her mouth remained stained from the night before. “I had forgotten it was time. I’m ashamed that such a thing happened, but…”

“You shouldn’t be ashamed.” Pamina touched the side of her clean lips with the cloth, near the curve of one of her parentheses. “I’m only sad that you’re torn up. This dress was so beautiful.” She followed the curve to her chin.

“I’ll heal, though I too am sad about the dress.”

Pamina began to wipe her neck, where the blood had dried into a layer of dark red scabs.

“I was wearing a string of pearls yesterday. They broke when I transformed, even though I tried to remove them. I was standing just outside my house, in the backyard. I really hope they’re still there.”

“I remember that necklace!” She leaned a little closer. “You have to try to come to me next time, Diana. Before any more of your wardrobe—Oh,” her face popped with color. “I’m sorry,  _ Frau Weiss. _ ”  

“You can use my first name, Pamina.”

The baker had cleaned down to her collarbone. “Thank you,” and she paused too long, leaving her mouth slightly open in a sunny smile. “…Diana.” Pamina winked again, murdering the giggles bubbling up from her stomach.

“Stop—” Diana tried to do the same. “I don’t want to laugh right now! You’re so silly—”

“I’m sorry,” she held still with her fingers settling upon the older woman’s neck. “Listen, I need to clean and bandage your wounds, but it’s going to hurt. Are you ready?”

“I suppose so, but I can wait if I’m going to make you late for work.”

“Nonsense. I won’t be able to focus anyway, if you’re here in pain and bleeding. I would rather be a little late than imagine you alone, suffering, and leaking blood on the carpet.”

“Am I getting blood on the carpet?”

Pamina touched some of Diana’s silver hair. “Only a little bit.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Pamina stood and went back to the kitchen.

From her place on the floor, Dina heard her, scrubbing out the cloth beneath the running sink water, and later going into the cabinets and placing numerous bandages into the sack she made of her skirt. Like she had many time before, Pamina came back to Diana, holding up the top layer of her dress and all its supplies, setting them one by one upon the floor before kneeling at her side. Pamina had stuck her tongue out of her mouth, helping her to focus.

That made Diana laugh again.

“What? What’s so funny? I didn’t even wink at you.”

“I’m sorry,” her mouth condensed to a smirk. “You’re so cute.”

“I’m cute, huh? You’re not going to think that in a few seconds.”

Still, Frau Weiss smiled and kept smiling, while Pamina widened her eyes and bit down on her tongue as the cloth descended, almost touching the wounds. The approaching hand moved slowly, like a defiant child beneath the watchful eyes of her parent when told explicitly not to touch something. Pamina’s face grew more ridiculous by the minute, until her mouth bent in numerous unnecessary places and her brows rose nearly to her hair. Diana saw her gums beneath her upper lip, which revealed her top row of teeth covering her bottom lip entirely, with her tongue hanging out, biting her chin.

“Stop—” the older woman pleaded again. “That’s such a stupid face!”

Pamina breathed through her teeth and dilated her nostrils, causing Diana to laugh even harder. Her hand shook the cloth over the cuts, almost touching them, but still hovering a hair away from contact. With her mouth like that, she tried to speak, “Arl yoh rleddih?”

Frau Weiss nearly rolled. “No, please, stop—” she begged. “Ooh, it hurts.”

Pamina laughed too, wiped the drool from her chin, and the tears from her Diana’s eyes. “I think you might be the cute one, Frau Weiss. Now really, let’s get you bandaged up.”

“Alright,” she settled. “Thank you,  Fräulein .”

Pamina always cleaned Diana’s cuts gently. With her cloth, she collected the blood without making the poor woman howl, and quickly placed  bandages over them. Sometimes, the skin of her fingers would brush against Diana’s flesh. The sides of her prints might catch a soft patch of breast, or brush past her navel. Regardless, Pamina worked quickly, hands moving even when they smirked at one another from the moments before. When she playfully pinched Diana’s left nipple, their smirks turned into smiles.

Pamina had nearly finished, and wove her fingers with her guest’s. “I hate whoever has done this to you. I don’t think you deserved it.”

Diana clutched her hand and closed her eyes with the incoming pain and the incoming cloth. 

Once Pamina had finished and covered Diana’s torso beneath a blanket of gauze, she laid on the floor next to her. Frau Weiss didn’t roll toward her, but she did turn her head of newly messy hair until their faces were a short distance away, and Pamina kissed her on the cheek. 

“I have to go soon,” she started, “but you can stay as long as you want. If you need to leave, you can borrow one of my dresses, and if you’re hungry I have some bread and cheese in the kitchen.” She kissed the tip of Diana’s nose. “I wish I could hug you, but I’m worried about your cuts, so this will have to do.” Pamina pressed her lips against her guest’s forehead, perfectly in the center, and then stood. “I hope I’ll see you again soon, Frau Weiss.”

“You will,  Fräulein . Thank you for your help.”

“Of course.”

Pamina readied for work as the sun continue to rise, stepping around Diana and stopping occasionally to kiss her on the cheek. Having put on a fresh dress, she gathered her bag and slung it over her shoulder, and lingered at the door.

“Thank you for stopping over, Frau Weiss.”

“Thank  _ you _ ,  Fräulein . I hope you have a wonderful day.”

“I’m sure I will. It’s already off to a great start.” Pamina opened the door and paused, offering Diana a gentle grin. “Stay out of trouble, won’t you?”

“At least for another month.”

After the last goodbyes, Pamina finally left, worked a normal day amongst the light fog and heavy gossip, and came home to find a recently cleaned carpet and a thank you note above the fireplace, composed in Frau Weiss’s perfect characters. She had indeed borrowed a dress from Pamina’s closet, and intended to pay her back twofold for her kindness, and though she might have been a troublesome and undesired guest, Diana was quite pleased to be able to meet her, despite the unfavorable circumstances.

Pamina read the note a few times over the course of a peach someone had given her at the bakery. Then she went about her nightly ritual, and a few days passed. 

Business ebbed and flowed as it usually did. Pamina made and sold most of her bread, and the eyes disappeared from the woods. One day, as she spoke to a particularly talkative customer, an elegantly dressed woman walked in, a little old with silver hair that stretched halfway down her back. She held with her a large bag, filled with a dress at the bottom and a box of chocolates near the top.

“Oh, Pamina. You live so close to those awful woods. Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

Frau Weiss grinned to her and Pamina winked back.

“I think I’ll be just fine, thank you,” and she handed the woman her bag of bread and pastries.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this. At first I wasn't sure how to work with this angle, but I'm glad this story came to me. Thanks to the anon who suggested it!


End file.
